Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced a historic agreement Sunday night on emergency legislation to avert the nation's first-ever financial default.

The dramatic resolution lifted a cloud that had threatened the still-fragile economic recovery at home — and it instantly powered a rise in financial markets overseas.

The agreement would slice at least $2.2 trillion from federal spending over a decade, a steep price for many Democrats, too little for many Republicans. The Treasury's authority to borrow would be extended beyond the 2012 elections, a key objective for Obama, though the president had to give up his insistence on raising taxes on wealthy Americans to reduce deficits.

The deal, with scant time remaining before Tuesday's debt-limit deadline for paying government bills, "will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America," the president said in an announcement at the White House.

Default "would have had a devastating effect on our economy," he said.

If I may translate: "My poll numbers are cratering as it is, which means I couldn't have ordered a default and escaped the blame for it like I did the 2008 financial panic that put me into power without the wingnuts caving, and that would have had a devastating effect on my re-election chances, so I'm ending the phony crisis that I wanted to impose on America."

Of course, the actual debt crisis, which is the size of the debt itself, is still imminent, and because the GOP didn't succumb to B.O.'s panicmongering, he won't be able to escape responsibility for it. That's the strategic political takeaway from Episode II of Debt Wars: By injecting steel into Republican spines, the Tea Party has forced a change in the direction of the fiscal debate and now has its first measurable results. Sure, the cuts are woefully inadequate. But in order to turn the tide, you have to stop it first. To, um, borrow a World War II metaphor, you can't get to Berlin without an El Alamein and Stalingrad first.

But leave it to Mary Tyler Less to ride to Red Barry's rescue:

"Someone has to say no. I will," said Representative Michele Bachmann, R-MN6, a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Mark my words, and mark them well: If House Tea Partiers follow this woman's advice and shoot down this deal, thereby pulling a comprehensive PR disaster from the jaws of a modest downpayment on eventual victory, they will be handing the Li'l President and his currently divided party both a unifying event and a propaganda bludgeon with which to turn 2012 into a reprise of 2008.

Take my advice, Michelle: Pocket your meager winnings and get ready for the next round. The Debt Wars have a looooong way to go.

China: Muslims shouting "Allah is the only god" hack security guard to death, murder three others, occupy police station

Still more Islamophobia. "14 rioters shot down in Xinjiang attack," from Xinhua, July 20 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

HOTAN, Xinjiang - Police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Monday, a Communist Party official in Hotan said Wednesday.The official, who declined to be named, said the attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. At least three others were injured.

Rioters hacked security guard Memet Eli to death while they were trying to break into the Na'erbage police station shortly after 12 pm Monday, said Ablet Metniyaz, chief of the police station.

"He is just 25. He planned to get married in September," said Abliz, an officer of the police station.

In addition to Eli, an armed police and two civilians died in the incident, according to Metniyaz, 38, who has been serving as chief of the police station for three years.

The rioters had taken six civilian people and some police staff hostage, and set fire and smashed things in the police station, leaving damaged computers, printers, furniture and clothes scattered around, Metniyaz said.

Shouting frantic religious slogans like "Allah the only God", the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said an anonymous policeman with the police station.

"The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88

Anti-dhimmitude in an Australian court: "Man who had relationship with primary-school girl jailed for 10 years," by Mark Dunn for the Herald Sun, July 22 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A MAN who claimed it was culturally acceptable for him to have a sexual relationship with a primary-school child who later bore him a son will spend up to 10 years in jail.The 31-year-old, now classified as a pedophile, had claimed his cultural background meant age was not a relevant factor in choosing a wife or sexual partner, the County Court in Melbourne heard.

But in sentencing the man, who migrated as a refugee from a north-Asian country, Judge Lisa Hannan said his continued sexual relationship with the girl - from the age of eight until she fell pregnant - was repulsive and defied morality.

This is the last episode of Political Pistachio Radio on BlogTalkRadio. The show will be moving to KCAA 1050 AM next weekend. Visit politicalpistachio.com and douglasvgibbscom to learn more. Conservative News and Commentary

Earthquakes continue to rattle Japan. This morning northeastern Japan was rocked by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake that is believed to be an aftershock. Seven people were injured, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The epicenter of this quake was off the coast, abouts 35 miles (57 kilometers) below the sea surface.

There was no further damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex.

Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders are indicating they have agreed to a compromise debt ceiling deal with the White House. The framework of the deal includes $1 in cuts for every dollar raised in the debt ceiling; no new taxes; and no more votes on the debt ceiling until after the 2012 election.

Wins for our side: Actual spending cuts, no new taxes to clobber an already depressed economy (beyond the ones already in place); wins for the other side: Spending cuts not nearly large enough, entitlements remain untouched, no more debt ceiling votes until after November 2012. Essentially, a stalemate.

Could we have done better if we had kicked Red Barry and Dirty Harry in the nuts and dared them to force a default? No, we could not, because a default was entirely at the White House's discretion, and if we had given him that garishly overt an opening, he would have taken it, ordered a default, and then claimed that it was solely because of Republican extremist intransigence. "I tried to meet them halfway, but they let the radical Tea Partiers drive the country's finances back into the ditch." And independent (i.e. ignorant, low-information, emotion-driven) voters would have swallowed it hook, line, & sinker. It would have been Newt Gingrich's overreaching in the second government shutdown showdown with Bill Clinton back in the winter of '95 all over again.

The irony? We'll get a crisis anyway. The effect of this deal will be negligible. The problem isn't whether or not the debt ceiling got raised and never was; it's the magnitude of debt we already have and the direction in which that number is heading. Nothing that came out of the debt ceiling melodrama was going to change that. It's been decades in the making, the Obamidency has simply (and by design) served to bring it to a head a decade or so sooner than it otherwise would have.

But because the GOP hung tough and forced the White House and Senate Dems to accept a genuine compromise (i.e. nobody likes this deal), it also means we forced them to take at least partial ownership of the debt crisis still to come. Which means it'll be much more difficult for The One to duck responsibility when it happens.

Crises only work for wannabe dictators when they're not likely to wind up the ones (figuratively or literally) hanging from lampposts. And with the Obamaconomy in its current dismal straits, his avenue of re-election escape is about to get even narrower.

The jig is up. It has been for quite a while. The evidence against the man-made global warming hoax is overwhelming, but the facts mean nothing to the liberal left crazies. That's because it isn't about the environment, or their fake science. This whole thing is about power. It's all about controlling the people through some wicked social engineering belief, or whatever else they have up their sleeves.

Humanity, as much as the leftists would like to believe, are not capable of influencing the global temperatures. As proven by the quickness of the healing of the gulf after the BP oil spill, the planet is resilient, and can withstand pretty much anything we can throw at it. This is not to say that I believe we should not care, either. If there is gunk in the air, we should take care to keep it clean. If there is gunk in the water, then we should take care to keep it clean. Not because government orders us to, or because they lie to us about some cataclysmic environmental crisis, but because we should be good stewards of the planet.

As for global warming, the planet does indeed warm and cool, but because of the sun's flare activity. Do greenhouse have any affect? Perhaps, but not to the extent that we are being told. Besides, the greenhouse gases we spew into the air is less than one percent of what the Earth produces itself (via oceans, volcanoes, and the like). Are we really supposed to believe that such a miniscule amount has the kind of influence on global temperatures as the global warming alarmists claim?

Besides, humanity realizes the lie. They know that global warming is a sham. The percentage of people believing the lie drops continuously.

The leftists will do anything to keep in place their lie. Crisis is necessary for them to do what they want. Fear of a dying planet keeps the people in check. Their lie goes so deep that even in the face of the facts, they will swear by their bull crap.

Remember how a couple weeks ago we were having "record-breaking heat"? Nearly no records were broken, after all. What we were being told was a bunch of lies. Sure, it was hot as heck, but record breaking? Not quite.

Less than 0.4% of those reporting actually broke temperature records.

The media claimed we were having record breaking heat, but they weren't even (sometimes) telling us what the temps were. Instead, they threw in the "heat index" to make the temperatures seem higher than they truly were.

This is nothing new. We know that liberals lie. We know that the media is their accomplices. When it comes to working on what they want, they lie, which means there is almost nothing true in the mainstream media. What is being reported by these clowns is usually not the truth, but a strategy to advance a political agenda of liberalism.

They told us that there had been record-breaking heat that may last for weeks, and instead, it turned out that almost no temperature records were broken.

But it was hot, and the people that believe this crap began to feel the fear. They were putty in the hands of the liberals. "Save us from the heat! We'll drive an overpriced, unmarketable Chevy Volt!"

It's the month of July and they are acting as if it being hot is something strange. Now, if this was six months ago, and the heat was like this for a week or so, perhaps they'd have something. But in July?

In only four-tenths of 1% of reported temperatures was a record set.

They lied about the record breaking temperatures, and they lied about it because they want you to believe the world's coming to an end, and that the only way to save it is for government to dictate to you your energy use. They want to give you government controlled thermostats, and they want you to ride trains, and they want you to beg them to save you from the big bad warming trend that actually began cooling already.

Those global warming hoax believers, however, even in the face of evidence, refuse to accept the truth that what they believe is a lie. In fact, they are so intent on making their totalitarian environmentalism the law, that they are willing to force it. One writer, who calls the "global warming deniers" a bunch of "boneheads," even went so far as to recommend that those that refuse to believe the global warming lie should have their opinions tattooed on them like the Jews had to wear armbands in Nazi Germany.

He retracts the statement later in his article, but the mere suggestion shows you how bat-crap-crazy these liberal man-made global warming advocates truly are.

Of course liberals are so nuts that in California they are actually demanding that Conservatives leave the State. They apparently can't stomach being surrounded by individuals that refuse to be a part of the liberal collective, and cling to something called facts, and the truth.

The truth is that global warming scientists are under investigation for fraud, or as the scientific community calls it, misconduct.

Charles Monnett is one of those scientists under investigation. He was one of those liars that claimed several polar bears had drowned in the Arctic Ocean - a claim that helped galvanize the global warming movement.

Fact is, it was a bold-faced lie.

The investigation uncovering these lies (which of course the liberals will refuse to accept, and will call them conspiracy theories, or something of the sort) is compounding upon the fact that skepticism is already on the rise about man-made global warming.

While an Obama administration policy is in place that is intended to protect scientists from political interference, apparently the truth was able to find these liars in their dens.

In addition to the investigations into the lies of global warming scientists, NASA has also produced evidence that the global warming hoax is nowhere near the truth.

Satellite data over the last decade reveals that the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted. Therefore, that would mean, if the hoax was true, based on their models, far less future global warming would occur than United Nations computer models have predicted.

In other words, despite their moronic claims, atmospheric carbon dioxide traps far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Gore's image of a polar bear trapped on a block of ice was even faked.

And yet these people still claim the hoax is real. Despite all of the evidence against them, and the proof of corruption and lies, they continue to push forward - because being drunk with power does that to liberals.

A legislative proposal in San Francisco seeks to make ex-cons and felons a protected class, along with existing categories of residents like African-Americans, people with disabilities and pregnant women. If passed by city supervisors, landlords and employers would be prohibited from asking applicants about their criminal past.

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? -- Ben Franklin, July 28, 1787

Even the most celebrated deist, Benjamin Franklin, recognized that God sometimes involves Himself in the affairs of men. The American Revolution was a miracle, and the U.S. Constitution, as far as these men were concerned, was created with the assistance of Divine Providence.

Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, all of them were Christians:

Out of the 56 signers, only two were the overtly unorthodox ”Unitarian/Universalist”: John Adams and Robert Paine (both came from a Congregationalist background). In the most traditional Christian orthodoxy, this "we all get in somehow" attitude tends not to be considered very Christian at all. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin are celebrated as being mere Deists according to the most liberal thinking, though Jefferson invoked the name of Christ quite a bit for an alleged non-believer, and Franklin seemed to Christianize more and more as he got older. So, taking those four out of the mix, just for argument's sake, and keeping the remainder as examples of the “bible-believing” Christians in the most fundamental classical sense, we still find it to be an interesting set of numbers.

By taking those four out of the list of 56 signers, we still wind up with only 7% of the signers not being orthodox Christians, or it can be said that 93% of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox bible believing Christians. To break it down further, most had seminary degrees (though that was easy enough to achieve since most universities were tied to denominations), and four of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were current or former full-time preachers. Also, many more of the signers were the sons of clergymen, as well as very active in their churches.

There are those of the anti-Founding Fathers persuasion that will, in response to this, produce many anti-religious quotes by the various Founding Fathers, and I do not deny the existence of those quotes. To understand those quotes, however, we must look at the world from the point of view of the founders. Their frame of reference when it came to "religion" was the Church of England, the established church of England.

When studying the writings of the Founding Fathers, what we come to realize is that they were indeed men of faith, but also skeptics of organized religion. In other words, they were biblical Christians who believed deeply in the Faith the Bible offered, but failed to see anything positive in the organizations of religion that man had created. Considering their view of centralized government, and the dangers of power in the hands of men, this is understandable.

In other words, the founders loved God, believed in Christ, and hated man-made religious organizations and the damage such systems could place on society, and government. They desired the leaders of the new nation to be Godly men, without the influence of an overbearing institutionalized religion. They did not want the church controlling the government, nor the government controlling the church, yet they wanted God's presence to emanate throughout the new government. The founders desired that the members of this new government would be men of God that held to Christian values and principles.

Signer John Witherspoon said:

It is the man of piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier. – God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseperable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.

So did this nation enjoy a Christian founding?

Yes, but not in the theocratic manner some may think. Yes, most of the States were theocracies at that time, but the founders were searching for a balance where God was an instrumental part of the nation, while keeping the evils of institutionalized religion and an established church at bay.

So here are the facts. The Founding Fathers largely identified themselves as Christians. Approximately 98 percent of the colonists were Protestants, with the remaining 1.9 percent being Roman Catholics. America's colonial origins, or at least in the northern colonies, were encouraged by the desire for religious freedom. Massachusetts, with the Puritans and Pilgrims, is a great example of that. Sure, the southern colonies were more about investment and economic opportunities, but even in those colonies, the protection and promotion of Christianity was more important than many critics assume.

Early colonial laws and constitutions such as the Mayflower Compact, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and Massachusetts Body of Liberties are filled with biblical language that, in some cases, actually incorporate biblical texts wholesale.

Early colonial constitutions and laws reveals a Christian heritage that was quite extensive. In fact, at least nine of the 13 colonies had established churches, and all required officeholders to be Christians, or, in some cases, Protestants. Quaker Pennsylvania, for instance, expected officeholders to be “such as possess faith in Jesus Christ.” Only Rhode Island seemed to practice true religious freedom at that point in the sense that became popular later after the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1786 by Madison and Jefferson.

The Declaration of Independence itself lends to the Christian nature of this nation during that time period: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The principles of this nation as founded were heavily influenced by Christian ideas and values. The Founding Fathers recognized that we are flawed (Romans 3:23 King James Version: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God), they understood that God ordained moral standards, Christianity informed the Founders’ understanding of substantive concepts such as “liberty," they believed we are created in the image of God (we are a spirit as God is a spirit), biblical teachings regarding the laws of Moses and the construction of government under Mosaic Law heavily influenced the creation of the structure of our government, and Faith led many Founders to conclude that religious liberty should be extensively protected. Many also thought that civic authorities should encourage Christianity and that it is appropriate to use religious language in the public square.

The founders believed that religious liberty is a right, and that it must be protected. This conviction was largely based upon the biblical principle that humans have a duty to worship God as their consciences dictate.

For God's Sake, Thanksgiving was created, and officially proclaimed by George Washington in 1789, for the purpose of giving thanks to God for the Blessings this nation had received.

It is clear that the founders were not largely Deists, Atheists, or non-Christians. This nation was founded as a Christian nation, but one that welcomes religious diversity, and yes, even secular thought.

Who has the answer to the freewheeling, high spending ways of Washington? Is it Rep. Paul Ryan? Nope. Is it Speaker John Boehner? Nope. Is it Harry Reid? Please! Don’t make me laugh! Is it President Obama? Come on, you are not even using the brains God gave a turnip if you suggest such.

None of the major players in this dog and pony show over the national debt and government spending have the answer. Their so-called solutions all add trillions of dollars to the national debt over the coming years. For the most part their plans only cut future spending, not current spending. On top of that they assume pie in the sky revenue projections ten years out to make their plans look like they might be somewhat serious.

But I can give you a real plan. It is a plan that the Republican led House would reject. It is a plan that the Democratic led Senate would never even allow to be voted on. And it is a plan that President Obama would run over little old ladies and overturn baby strollers to veto.

But it is a plan that would limit spending to not more than we bring in; currently approximately $2.6 trillion each year.

Ready?

The following programs, departments and boondoggles get cut 100% from their 2011 funding at the federal level:

· Consumer Research and Occupational Health and Safety· Health Research And Training· Medical Services· Elementary, Secondary, Vocational and Higher Education· “General Science” and “Basic Research”· Research and General Education Grants· Training and Unemployment Services· “Other” Labor Services· Social Services· International Security Assistance· International Development and Humanitarian Assistance· Food and Nutritional Assistance· Unemployment Compensation· Housing Assistance· “Other” Income Security· “Other” Natural Resource Funding· Farm Income Stabilization· Agricultural Research Services· Energy Conservation· Energy Information, Regulation and Information· Funds for “Other” Advancement of Commerce· Pollution Abatement· Protection of Biodiversity and Landscapes· Housing Development· Community Development· Water Supply Funding· Recreational and Sporting Services· Space Flight, Research and Supporting Activities (to be given to the Air Force and put into the general military budget)

Wail all you want. There just is not the money to pay for these programs. Hold your breath until you turn blue and pass out. Just do not expect anyone to be there to move your sorry butt out of the way of oncoming traffic. If you want to continue these programs because you think they are so important then I suggest you donate the money to keep them going. But you will not. So don’t pretend that you will.If individual states want to maintain these unconstitutional programs they may do so as well. But good luck with that considering that states already receive over 30%, on average, of their operating budgets from Washington DC. And most of that money is going bye-bye with this real plan to reign in our debt.

The following programs, departments and boondoggles get 10% austerity cuts from their 2011 levels:

Again, pitch the biggest fit you want. There just is not the money to be found to keep them going at the rates Washingtonians want. Oh, and all these 10% cuts are a minimum pending a review of waste, fraud, abuse and yes, constitutionality of every penny spent on them.

The following programs, departments and boondoggles get 15 to 40% austerity cuts as noted from their 2011 levels:

· Income Security for Veterans· Veterans Education, Training and Rehabilitation· Hospital and Medical Care For Veterans· Veterans Housing· Other Veterans Benefits and Services

Why don’t these programs get cut? Because the men and women who actually go out and take bullets for this country are underpaid as is. Complain all you want. Our soldiers fight for this country and get next to nothing in compensation. It is only right that we support them for their service.

So where does all this bring us to? It brings us to a budget of just about $2.3 - $2.4 trillion for next year. After we pay out things like tax refunds and other debts the United States will net, by my estimate, about $2.4 to $2.6 trillion. That does not give us a lot of breathing room. But there is some breathing room.

If there is an extra $100 billion or $300 billion then it can be used to start paying down the $14.3 trillion debt politicians have racked up at the behest of citizens who could not be bothered to realize they were asking for things we could not pay for.

There’s the plan.

But I will make you a bet that no one in Washington has the honesty to realize it is the way best forward from here. Nope. We will more than likely just get more of the same for years to come; higher spending, higher debt and a bigger crash in the end.

======================================================J.J. Jackson is a libertarian conservative author from Pittsburgh, PA who has been writing and promoting individual liberty since 1993 and is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. He is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com. He is also the owner of The Right Things - Conservative T-shirts & Gifts The Right Things. His weekly commentary along with exclusives not available anywhere else can be found at Liberty Reborn.

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